Madison slouched in the quilted leather chair that felt too clunky for the room. Swirling the brandy in her glass. Jase was disagreeing.
"You can't be the target, Greg said this was about more than you."
"Okay, but why would all three of us have a common enemy?" Madison asked. She looked at Jase and then her dad. Madison didn't mingle in their kind of social circles and Jase was too young to know many people her dad would have rubbed shoulders with.
"The only thing that connects us all is Madison," Mickey said. "Her being the main target isn't much of a stretch, the only thing it doesn't correlate with is what Greg said but it's not like he can be fucking trusted."
"Maybe he was expecting one of you to take the other out. Because if you did that, I wouldn't want to be around either of you, leaving me alone," Madison said. "Whoever he is, we've all pissed him off one way or another, be it recent or indirectly. What did you find on him?" She looked to Mickey who shook his head and threw his hands up in defeat.
"Nothing. There's no records of him, no social media, not even a mention until I was told he was looking for you," he admitted. Jase slowly tilted his head back, staring up at the ceiling.
"Caspar's not his real name," he said quietly.
"What?" Madison asked, he looked forward again.
"Caspar's not his real name. That's why we can't find anything and why he knows so much about us. It has to be someone we all know, probably someone one of us knows well." Madison and Mickey remained silent, thinking it over.
"Who would we all know?" Madison asked. Jase shrugged.
"Fuck knows." He focused on the brandy that had been left untouched in his glass, chewing the inside of his lip. Madison had been in the house long enough to know, or at least be able to recognise, anyone Jase knew, and her dad was evidently notorious considering the reach he had. The sample pool of people that would want all three of them dead wasn't huge if it included Madison doing them wrong, but it wasn't exactly small enough to pluck a list of suspects from the top of his head.
Madison huffed, slapping her hands on her knees as she began to rise. "Well, this has been lovely, really great to see you again, Dad, but if there's nothing else to say we should get going-"
Mickey wasn't finished though. "Sit. Down," he ordered. Slowly, Madison lowered herself back into the chair. "Now that Greg is gone, it's only a matter of time before Caspar will have to reach out elsewhere. I want the pair of you to be aware of any strange behaviour from people around you, and Mia isn't to be left with anyone but Lily or one of you-"
"First of all, don't tell me who is safe for my child to be around. You're hardly the model parent," Madison cut in. Mickey raised his brows.
"Have the skills I taught you never been of any help?"
"That's not the point. If it wasn't for your shitshow life, those aren't skills I would have ever needed. Secondly, you don't get to summon us and then lay down the law, dictating what we can and can't do," she finished. Jase felt for her. Mickey wasn't being unreasonable, if there was anyone Jase would want to listen to, it was someone who had been in their world for as long as her dad. Madison was lashing out for entirely different reasons.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Mickey asked, sitting back and lacing his fingers across his stomach. Madison was stumped. Something in her kept trying to get him to snap so they could scream at each other and she could let out all the hurt and fear that had built up over the years but he wasn't giving her the satisfaction. Instead, he gave her legroom to prove herself. She wasn't sure if that was what she desperately wanted to do, to appeal to a parent in the way a desperate child craves, or whether she truly wanted to rip his head off and gut him through his exposed throat. So she did the only thing she could do and poured another double, leaning over the desk for the bottle and swiping the cigarettes at the same time.
"I will leave Mia with whoever I see fit." She was starting to feel unsure if it was a good idea to have left her with Kieran. "As for Caspar, or whoever the fuck he really is, of course, he'll come out of hiding eventually. But we still won't know it's him, not until it's too late more than likely. You need to think about who you've fucked off in the past three or four years that would tie me and Jase into it. I suggest you get a list of who you've scammed, stabbed, shot, lied to, cheated in that time frame." Madison could hear herself and wanted to stop but she couldn't. She just needed to let him know one last time that this was his fault somehow. But her point wasn't put together very eloquently and the alcohol was taking a toll and fuzzing at her fingertips. The only choice she had now was to remove herself from the situation entirely before her dad started calling her an emotional drunk. She stood up and left.
Jase didn't move, more than aware Madison could do with the space. An uncomfortable silence hovered in the air. Then Mickey poured another drink, glancing at Jase's glass, noting he was barely halfway through his first, before humming curiously and putting the bottle down.
"Is she always like that?" he asked. Jase shook his head, fiddling with a lighter in his pocket nonchalantly. Mickey nodded slowly. "I thought not. Whenever I've been told about her, she's always described as scarily calm. I'm also told she had you wrapped around her finger?"
Jase breathed a small laugh. "That tends to be the story people love to tell," he mumbled.
"That's not a bad thing. It means there's some sense in you. If you're going to do our job then it's a benefit if you feel something. If you had a maniac going around killing people willy-nilly then no one would get away with it. However, that much emotion, that she's showing right now, is exactly why I didn't want her here today. It's women, after they get to a certain age it's like they're combusting with emotion."
Jase smiled, finding it entertaining when people underestimated Madison because he knew exactly what kind of shock it could lead to. There was never any prewarning anyone, they all insisted on learning the hard way.
"With all due respect, Madison isn't... I wouldn't categorise her as an emotional woman. I've watched her kill people." He waved a hand over his own face. "There's nothing there, she doesn't even flinch."
Mickey tilted his head. The new generation baffled him. Whilst he had never been in agreement with men who trafficked women or the soliciting business when it came to sexual pleasures, no one in his circle would defend a woman like that. They tended to defend them because they were weaker, with very few exceptions. They didn't defend them because they were strong. Mickey was glad Jase saw the potential in Madison. Realistically, he knew she wasn't someone to be tested or stereotyped because she was his daughter, after all. He'd made quite an effort when he was around to make sure she was plenty of things but never weak. Not his Madison.
"I can see why she likes you, Jase. You know who you are and when to say what, regardless of what anyone else thinks. That takes balls. A lot more than people give credit for," Mickey said. Jase didn't thank him. He didn't particularly care what Mickey thought. He cared about Madison having such a visceral reaction to being in a room with him. "I would much prefer to deal with this as solo as possible. You have a family now, they should come first. If you find or see or hear anything new, call. I'll have the number sent to the phone you were called on earlier." Jase nodded, standing up. "And when it comes to Madison, she has every right to be pissed off. Let her let it out, she's been bottling it up for a long time and she clearly feels safe enough around you to allow herself to be vulnerable." Jase didn't say anything else.
He wasn't sure what to think of Mickey.
Jase knew the name and all the connotations that came with it, as soon as Mickey had introduced himself. He wondered what his reaction would have been if Madison informed them all of her dad when she was in the house. There was no bad blood between them, they were from different sides of London in different kinds of business, but leverage was leverage. Madison had probably made the right decision by keeping it to herself. Benny was power crazy and he could have screwed them all over by shouting about having the likes of Mickey Kimber's kin in his possession.
"Is it him?" Karl asked when Jase had gone. Mickey leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the desk.
"It's him," he replied.
"Are you going to tell him?" Mickey shook his head.
"Not until I'm sure Madison is safe. Or she tells him first."
"Do you reckon she will?" Karl questioned. Mickey shrugged.
"Maybe. If she does, we'll just have to brace ourselves for a reaction. But she's smart. I have faith that whatever she chooses to do will be the best decision. She's made it this far."